Texas builds case in slaying of DA

Share via e-mail

KAUFMAN, Texas — Texas authorities investigating the killings of a district attorney and his wife are working to build a case against a former justice of the peace prosecuted last year by the slain official’s office, a law enforcement official said Monday.

Eric Lyle Williams, 46, was arrested during the weekend and remains jailed on a charge of making a terroristic threat. He is being held on $3 million bond, but authorities have not publicly discussed details of the charge against him.

Williams’s arrest came after federal and local agents investigating the March 28 deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, searched Williams’s home and a storage facility.

Investigators are now focused on trying to build a case against him, said the law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation.

The official said at least 20 weapons found in Williams’s storage locker are being tested by ballistics experts. A Ford Crown Victoria similar to one seen and video recorded in the McLellands’ neighborhood on the day they died also was found at the locker, the official said.

A state law enforcement official spent 2½ hours visiting with the storage facility’s manager Monday.

The official went into the manager’s office with a small black duffel bag and left with the bag as well as what appeared to be several documents. The manager, Larry Mathis, declined to comment after the meeting.

The office of David Sergi, Williams’s lawyer in the theft case, said Monday he would not have any comment on the case.